


Shiro's birthday

by Smallthingwrites



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday, Gen, I hope not, That feeling when you should really make a second draft but your too lazy, Twins, but still, only kinda, slight angst, small though, this might be a little ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-21 18:03:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22967680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smallthingwrites/pseuds/Smallthingwrites
Summary: It is Shiro's birthday and he doesn't want to pull attention to it. Might as well change the topic by introducing his twin brother instead.
Relationships: Ryou & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Shiro's birthday

Today was February 29th. Shiro was turning 29. Well, technically 32, but does it really matter? Oh wait, no, he isn't 32 nor 29, according to literally everyone he knows; he's 8.

EVEN RYOU DOES THIS!!!

When he really thinks about it, how incredibly unfair is it that he got a birthday on leap day while his brother got a normal birthday of March 1st? Like, yea, it's cool that it's rare and stuff, but who likes being called a little child their whole life?! Not to mention that he has to deal with remarks on how he is both supposedly 8 and how he looks old. Honestly, how is this fair?!

Well, anyway, the day started out normal and Shiro was _not_ going to make a big deal about his birthday. Maybe people will forget about it? Ok, yeah, no, Ryou is visiting America, he'd never forget about it. Which that means... sigh

Right as Shiro was about to resign himself to his fate of being mocked, he thought of something:

Has any of the paladins even met or even heard of Ryou?

Hmm, yeah, when Shiro thinks back to everything, he doesn't think he can remember ever introducing or even talking about his twin. Shiro hummed, maybe he can use this somehow.

He quickly came up with an idea and went to his guest room where Ryou was staying.

Shiro opened the door and noticed that Ryou wasn't sleeping. He was on his bed drawing in some note book. He didn't know what but had a feeling it had to do with something sci fi.

Ryou looked up, "Oh?! Takashi! Ah-," he bit his lip and blushed, "what are you doing in here?"

Shiro raised an eyebrow, normally Ryou wasn't skittish," Oh no real reason. Well… never mind," he quickly retraced.

Ryou hummed, "Huh? Do you need something?" he asked, growing anxious.

Shiro quickly shook his head. Good, attention is off of the day, "Oh, nothing. I just had an idea that's all," he said.

Ryou set the sketch book to the side and brought his legs onto the bed, he was now sitting cross-legged, "Oh? What idea?" his twin asked, tilting his head to the side a bit.

Shiro smirked, "Oh, well, I somehow forgot to mention that I have a twin to my friends. They don't know about you. I was just wondering if you could help me play a prank on them?" he suggested.

Ryou's eyes lit up, "Oh! You want me to pretend to be you, right?! Oh man!! I love this already!! What do you want me to do?! I can get make up and wear your clothes, though how to do the prosthetic is interesting. Maybe we can just ignore that. Either way, I'm in!!!" he exclaimed, his eyes filled with such energy that could only be comparable to a Pulsar.

Shiro nodded, "Wow, that was easy. Yeah, I just want you to pretend to be me for a bit, then I'll walk in and act all confused and stuff. Though, fair warning, they might react negatively, so just don't do anything too strange and keep fair distance," he explained. Saying the plan out loud did bring back some memories, but hey, it's his brother, not a clone.

Ryou nodded, "Umm, yeah, I see. Ok, yeah, I'll do it. I can temporarily dye my hair light gray, or I can do a wig, I am used to working with those on short notice. I will definitely need some make up to mimic the scar. I can try and… I really don't know what to do about my right arm though," he paused, "I think I could just wear one of your bulky coats or something. That could also give off the allusion that I am your body type."

"Yeah," Shiro agreed. Even though they are identical (well, mirror) twins, they don't look that much alike anymore. Ryou doesn't exercise as much as Shiro does and he's shorter than Shiro so they would have to definitely try to come up with ways to compensate for that.

With that, they had begun. Ryou had done some form of whatever magic he is and got a wig close to his hair style fairly quick. Using his own makeup affects, Ryou was able to make his hair go from the long, black hair that he had to Shiro's short, whiteish-grey hair. Then they did the rest of his outfit, he had to wear three layers of clothes to mimic Shiro's bulk and had to use some really good makeup skills to mimic the scar. Their eyes were also different colors, so Ryou used grey contacts that he had also somehow gotten really quickly.

Then they were ready.

The last time they had pulled a switch was when they were in middle school and they wanted to confuse their friends. The only reason why they didn't get in trouble is because they had the same schedule and they put their real names on assignments. No one caught on until the end of the day when Shiro had passed out due to his disease and their cover was blown.

Shiro told Ryou what to do when he got to the Galaxy Garrison and just followed behind him. He knew he might get in trouble for unauthorized citizen, but whatever. 

Ryou seemed to be doing well so far. No one had suspected a thing. Heck, he _nailed_ Shiro's voice. Normally Ryou's voice was higher than Shiro's. Maybe he still has that thing from childhood where he can perfectly mimic other people's voices. Then again, he was fairly sure that he would grow out of that.

Then Ryou was taking a break in the breakroom with the rest of the paladins, Sam, and Coran. Shiro was sure that Sam was suspecting something and decided to go with the plan.

He entered the room and yawned, everyone turned towards him, "Hey guys," he said, then sat next to Ryou. He decided to change his plan so that they wouldn't panic.

Instead, everyone stared at them in shock. Sam seemed to start to piece things together, but Keith was the one who spoke first," Shiro! Who is that?! Are.. What's? Is?" he stumbled, trying to make sense of what is going around in front of him.

Lance gapped, "Yeah dude, you owe us some explanation!!" he exclaimed.

Then Sam laughed. It wasn't a small laugh, it was a good laugh that you'd expect to come from a good joke, just like this.

Lance, Keith, Pidge and Hunk stared at him in unison. Coran still looked confused and Allura wasn't showing any emotion. Had she-

Sam continued to laugh for a good few minutes before finally calming down and saying, "Ah, well, it's nice to finally meet you, Ryou," he greeted, walking towards him.

This time Hunk spoke, "Okay… I am confused. Yeah, very. What is going on?" he asked.

Then Pidge came to the realization as well, "Wait, Shiro, are you guys twins?" she asked, moving towards them.

Shiro nodded and started laughing. Ryou took off his wig and started wiping the make up off the show his true face.

The room was filled with chatter of "Oh my god! That was it!!" and "Wait, you have a twin and you never told us?!".

Shiro and Ryou decided to wait a bit before answering their questions. Finally things died down a bit and Allura asked, "Wait, what's a 'twin'?" she looked like she had finally lost her sense of "nothing's going on. I will not question this".

"A 'twin' is a sibling. It's a sibling that was born from the same pregnancy as the other twin. They are either identical or fraternal, sometimes conjoined, but that's rare. Identical is where they share the same DNA exactly (well, with a few changed due to epigenetics, but pretty much the same DNA), which fraternal twins have the different DNA. Basically what you'd expect from regular siblings," Pidge explained, looking at both of them.

Allura nodded, "Oh, I see. So most of human pregnancies are only one child?" she asked, placing her head on her chin, leaning forward.

Pidge nodded.

Shiro hummed, "Yeah, that's pretty much what twins are. Me and Ryou are actually mirror twins. It's basically being identical, but we are mirror images of each other. I don't know if dominant hand changes are normal, but I use my left hand while Ryou uses his right hand for writing. I also have my heart on my right side and… well, basically all of my organs are a mirror image of Ryou's," he explained. Sometimes it was weird to think that his heart was on his right side while most people had theirs on their left side. Well, technically the heart is in the center, but his is flipped to the right. Still odd. Their doctor's actually didn't notice it until he got appendicitis when he was 19 and they noticed his appendix was on his left side and not the right.

Ryou nodded, "Yeah, weird to think that you're the mirror image even though you were born first," he said, taking off two layers of sweatshirts. Wow, he was skinny.

Shiro smirked, "How do you know that you aren't the one that's the mirror?" he asked with a chuckle at the end.

Ryou rolled his eyes and placed the sweatshirts to the side.

The others stared at them in amazement, "Wait, so, you two are like, exact copies of each other?" Coran asked, twirling his moustache.

Shiro shook his head, "Nope. Like what Pidge said, epigenetics. Also, if anything, we are exact mirror images of each other, not exact copies," he explained.

"Yeah, and we are completely different personality wise. Like, I am terrible at math and science, I have the personality of a crack head even though I don't do drugs. I actually like music while he doesn't. Oh! And I have this cool thing where I can exactly mimic another person's voice while Takashi can only mimic accents," Ryou told them, growing happier at the end.

"Wait, mimicking voices?" Keith asked.

Ryou nodded, "Yup, just like this," he said, demonstrating by changing his voice to sound _exactly_ like Keith's.

Okay, that did look incredibly weird.

"Oh… don't do that!" Hunk groaned, putting his face in his hands. Lance nodded.

Ryou laughed, "Ahh, I love doing that," he said fondly, "Anyway, I don't know who any of you are. Can you please introduce yourselves?"

Sam stepped forward, hand out, "It's nice to finally meet you, Ryou. I've heard a lot about you from Shiro. Oh, I'm Sam Holt, by the way," he explained.

Ryou's eyes went cold, "Sam Hot? Like, the guy who came back from the Kerberos mission with no news about my brother?!" he asked.

Sam tensed, "Uhh, well-" he trailed off.

Ryou frowned, "My family thought he was dead because you never said that he was alive. _You did not take what little time it would have taken to explain that Takashi was alive and you expect me to not be a little upset about that_?!" he exclaimed.

Sam stood, eyes filled with sorrow, "Oh, I am really sorry about that. I-, I did not intend to cause you pain. I just-" he cut off again.

Ryou stared at him, "If it were just me who was affected, I wouldn't care, but you… by holding that information, my sister and my mother grieved for him. We had hope that he'd be alive since you were talking, but you didn't say _anything_!" he said, starting to tear up. Shiro grabbed his hand and tried to reassure him with it.

Sam frowned, "I am sorry. I truly am. I know how hard it is to think that your family member-" he was cut off.

" _No you don't!! You don't know what it's like to have your twin be declared dead only to find out that was a lie. If you did, then you wouldn't have kept that information!!!"_ Ryou yelled, his hand was shaking and his pulse was rushing.

Sam leaned forward and put his hand on his shoulder, "Alright, you are right. I don't. But I am sincerely sorry. If I could go back in time, I would have said, in person, that he was alive," he said, looking right into Ryou's eyes.

Ryou dipped his head, "Alright, sorry for getting worked up. It's nice to meet you Sam," he said. Shiro knew that he didn't really forgive Sam. He never forgives that easily.

Then Hunk hopped up and went over to them, "Anyway… I'm Hunk Garret. It's so cool to meet you. I mean, I didn't even know you existed until today!" he exclaimed.

Ryou smirked, "Nice to meet you as well. You know, I like already," he said. Hunk smiled shyly at that comment.

"Hi, I'm Lance. I'm the best looking and most charismatic person here. Well, next to Allura, but still," he said, Shiro was going to say something, but then just let that comment speak for itself.

Ryou laughed, "Nice to meet you Lance. And, between the two of us, I'm the cooler twin," he said with a wink.

Lance laughed as well and sat back down.

"Hey, I'm Pidge. Please ignore Lance, he's… well, he's Lance," Pidge explained.

Ryou chuckled, "I don't see why you are apologizing for him. He clearly speaks the truth." Shiro was fairly certain that he saw Lance smile at that comment.

Ryou turned to Keith, "Wait… are you that emo kid who stole my brother's car when we were 20?" he asked, pointing to Keith.

Keith gasped and turned to Shiro, "You told him?!?!" he exclaimed.

Shiro nodded, "Um, yeah, why wouldn't I tell him about a 14 year old stealing my chair?" he asked.

Keith puffed, "Well, I-" he stopped.

Ryou laughed, "Anyway, what's your name emo boy?" he asked.

"I'm Keith and I'm not a boy," he said.

Ryou laughed again, "Yeah, right, anyone younger than me by three years is a boy in my book. Unless they are a woman, in which case, they are a girl," he said.

Keith puffed again and slumped into the couch.

Allura smiled, "I'm Princess Allura and this is my royal advisor, Coran," she explained, gesturing towards Coran.

"Wow, a princess? Wow, that's just," he stopped, stood up, and bowed, "It's an honor to meet you, your royal highness," he said.

Allura's face went frozen and Shiro stifled a laugh.

"Uhh, it's a pleasure to meet you too," she said awkwardly, "Though, you really don't have to do… _all of that_ ," she explained.

Ryou nodded, "Whatever you wish, Princess," he said, then sat back down.

They sat around for a bit and made small conversation.

Then the cursed question arose.

Lance hummed, "You know… if you are twins… when's your birthday?" he asked.

Quiznack.

Ryou smirked, "Well, interesting story. We actually have two birthdays. Yeah, I was born on March 1st at 12:04 AM while Takashi was born on February 29th at 11:56 PM," he explained.

Hunk smiled, "Oh my god! That's so cool! So, I guess you guys don't have to worry about celebrating on the same day, huh," he said.

Ryou nodded, "Yeah, usually we celebrate Takashi's on the 28th while mine is on the first," he explained.

Coran hunched forward, twirling his mustache again, "Wait, why do you celebrate Shiro's on the 28th if his brithday is the 29th?" he asked.

Shiro tensed and wanted to yeet himself out of a window.

"Oh, well, that's because the 29th is leap day. It happens every 4 years so the seasons and the calendar doesn't get thrown off. So, of course, we can't just _not_ do anything for him, so we celebrate it on the 28th," he explained.

Shiro was going to be grateful for Ryou not being an ass like usual and going on about how he's 8 when he's _not_!

Then Pidge said, "Wait, today is the 29th."

Is there a window near by he can yeet himself out of?

Ryou and Lance perked up and said the exact same thing, it was almost creepy, " Wait, it's your 8th birthday?!" they asked, giving each other high fives at that syn.

Shiro furrowed his eyebrows, "No! I am not 8! I am 29! Not 8! Please, stop saying that I'm 8!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms.

Lance laughed, "Well, now I'm kinda forced to say it now!" he exclaimed.

Ryou laughed and nodded to Lance.

Then Hunk started laughing, then Sam, then… this is why he wanted to avoid this day. You know what, no one's forcing him to stay.

Okay, he probably should stay so he doesn't look like an immature child, thus proving their point, but… fuck, alright, he hates that _stupid_ joke.

He left the room bitter.

\---------

Back in the breakroom the room was silent. Ryou was now in a room full of strangers he barely knows. Heck.

Then the Keith emo boi stood up and started going to the door, Ryou stood up, blocking him.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked, furious.

"I don't know, what are you doing?" he asked back. Probably not the most mature thing to say, but hey, he's not the mature twin.

" _I_ am going to check on Shiro. You guys made him upset!" Keith declared.

Ryou huffed, "Yeah, no" he stated, blocking the door.

"No??!!!" he asked, trying to push past Ryou.

"No. If I had to bet anything, I'd say that he thinks of you like a little kid like I do. He is not going to talk openly with someone he sees as a kid. That's why I'm going," he explained.

"For the last time, I'm not a kid!" Keith exclaimed, face growing red.

"Ok… that doesn't matter. All that matters is how he perceives you. He sees you as a kid. He's not going to open up to you," Ryou explained. Heck, he wasn't sure if Takashi was going to talk to _him_ about it.

"Well, how do you know! He's my brother! I have to do something!" Keith said, desperately.

Ryou frowned, "Yeah, well, he's my twin and seniority rules. I've known him for longer," he refuted.

Keith growled, "Let me talk to him!" he exclaimed.

Ryou shook his head and decided to end the conversation the same way Takashi had.

\-----

Was basically hiding in a closet the ideal way to handle teasing? No. Definitely no. If anything it was probably the most childish way of handling literally anything. But he just couldn't handle it anymore. Ryou knows that he hates that stupid joke. He hates it even more than the joke about him being old. That's saying something.

He had probably stayed in that closet for ten minutes before someone opened it.

It was Ryou. Of course.

Shiro curled in himself even more. Why did this joke get to him so much?

Shiro felt a hand on his back, "Hey, I'm sorry about earlier," Ryou stated.

Shiro shook his head, "No you aren't," he said. He isn't. If Ryou was, then he wouldn't have made that joke after year 6!

Ryou sighed, "Alright, your right. I'm not sorry about that joke. It's funny. I am, however, sorry that it made you upset. No joke could make that ok," he said.

Shiro shook his head, "It's ok… I don't care," he lied.

Rule #1 of being a twin: don't lie. The other can tell.

Ryou probably rolled his eyes, "Yeah right. If you don't care, then why are you hiding in this closet?!" he asked.

Shiro couldn't say anything.

"Hey, look, I'm so sorry. Is there… something you want to talk about? Where did this start? I don't remember you getting this upset over this joke when we were kids," Ryou explained.

But he did get upset about this when they were kids. Didn't he-

Shiro shrugged, "I don't know… I've always hated that joke. Then there were those kids in year 6 and-"

Ryou interrupted, "Wait, those kids! Oh, yup, I remember. I… wow, I am a total asshole. I am so sorry," he said, rambling on even more.

"Those kids" were a group of kids in their middle school. The main thing Shiro remembers about them was how they'd pick on a ton of kids. Shiro tried to help, but caught up in it instead. They made a fool out of him for being born on leap day.

But then…

Shiro smirked at the memory, "It's ok. You, don't feel sorry. I mean, you _did_ get expelled for 'accidentally' spilling your glue on their backpacks. I mean, that does kinda outweigh getting laughed at," he said. How could he have forgotten about that.

"Well, what else could I do!? I mean, they publicly humiliated you!! They deserved that!" he exclaimed, folding his arms.

Shiro chuckled, leaning into his brother whom pulled him into a hug. They stayed like that for a while.

"Hey, do you want to go back? I think I can get one of your friends to pay for dinner," Ryou asked, not quite ready to let him go yet.

"Let them pay?! What about all that stuff about respect and manners?" he asked, jokingly.

Ryou rolled his eyes, "That was Okaasan and Otoosan that was big on that stuff. I am all for saving a quick buck (that's the saying, right?)" he said.

Shiro chuckled, "Ok, yeah. Sure, that sounds nice," he said, and started to stand up.

Ryou helped him and they began walking back to the break room.

Maybe his birthday wasn't that bad after all…

**Author's Note:**

> If you read this far, thank you so much. I honestly don't really know what to feel about this lol  
> By the way, yes, they do discuss how they managed to belief that Ryou was actually Shiro for about an hour or so.


End file.
